Premiere Stages at Kean presents “Selling Kabul”



(UNION, NJ) — Premiere Stages at Kean University will present the New Jersey Premiere of Sylvia Khoury’s Selling Kabul September 7-24 in Kean University’s Bauer Boucher Theatre Center (Vaughn Eames Hall, 1000 Morris Avenue, Union, NJ). Directed by Taylor Reynolds, Selling Kabul will feature actors Atra Asdou, Anat Cogan, Afsheen Misaghi, and Zaven Ovian.

In Selling Kabul, Taroon once served as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. Now it is 2013, and the Americans — and their promises of safety — have begun to withdraw. Taroon spends his days in hiding, a target of the increasingly powerful Taliban. On the eve of his son’s birth, he must remain in his sister’s apartment, or risk his life to see his child. With shattering precision, Sylvia Khoury’s tense drama traces the human cost and the legacy of our longest war.

The accomplished cast includes Atra Asdou, whose television credits include HBO’s Somebody Somewhere and South Side; Anat Cogan, whose theatre credits include Ocean In A Teacup (Theater Row), David (ST Marks), and Ajax In Iraq (Flux); Afsheen Misaghi, whose television credits include Succession, The Blacklist and Blue Bloods, and Zaven Ovian, whose theatre credits include Émilie… (Duende Productions/The Flea Theater) and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern…, Romeo & Juliet (Huntington Theater). Kean Theatre Conservatory alumna René Mayo will understudy the roles of Afiya and Leyla and current Kean Theatre Conservatory student Raul Ortega will understudy the roles of Jawid and Taroon.

Left to right: Atra Asdou, Afsheen Misaghi, Anat Cogan, Zaven Ovian

Selling Kabul runs September 7-September 24 in the Bauer Boucher Theatre Center on the Kean University main campus in Union, N.J. Performances take place Thursdays and Fridays at 8:00pm, Saturdays at 3:00pm & 8:00pm, and Sundays at 3:00pm.  Tickets are $35 standard, $25 for senior citizens and Kean alumni and staff, $20 for patrons with disabilities and $15 for students. Significant discounts for groups of ten or more apply. To purchase tickets or inquire about opening night or season packages, please call the box office at 908-737-7469 or visit premierestagesatkean.com

Selling Kabul received its New York Premiere at Playwrights Horizons (Adam Greenfield, Artistic Director, Leslie Marcus, Managing Director, Carol Fishman, General Manager) in November 2021, Directed by Tyne Rafaeli. The New York Premiere was produced in association with Williamstown Theatre Festival.

Sylvia Khoury is a New York-born writer of French and Lebanese descent. Her plays include Selling Kabul (Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theater Festival), Power Strip (LCT3), and Against the Hillside (Ensemble Studio Theater). She is currently under commission from Lincoln Center, Williamstown Theater Festival and Seattle Repertory Theater. Awards include the L. Arnold Weissberger Award and Jay Harris Commission and a Citation of Excellence from the Laurents/Hatcher Awards. She is a member of EST/ Youngblood and a previous member of the 2018-2019 Rita Goldberg Playwrights’ Workshop at The Lark and the 2016-2018 WP Lab. Her plays have been developed at Playwrights Horizons, Williamstown Theater Festival, Eugene O’Neill Playwrights’ Conference, Roundabout Theater Underground, Lark Playwrights’ Week, EST/Youngblood, and WP Theater. She holds a BA from Columbia University, an MFA from the New School for Drama and an MD from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Director Taylor Reynolds is a New York-based theatremaker from Chicago and one of the Producing Artistic Leaders of OBIE-award winning The Movement Theatre Company in Harlem. Her work focuses on dissecting and exploring issues related to race, gender, and the intersectionality of identity (horror and ghosts also tend to be themes in her work). She has worked as a director, assistant, and collaborator with companies including Playwrights Horizons, CTG, Baltimore Center Stage, Signature Theatre Company, Page 73, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, The Public, EST, Ars Nova, Radical Evolution, and The 24 Hour Plays. Selected directing credits: Man Cave by John J. Caswell Jr, Tambo & Bones by Dave Harris, The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington by James Ijames (NYT Critic’s Pick), Richard & Jane & Dick & Sally by Noah Diaz, Tough by Margot Connolly, Plano by Will Arbery (Drama Desk nom for Best Director), Songs About Trains (co-directed with Rebecca Martinez), ALLOND(R)A by Gina Femia, Think Before You Holla (creator/deviser), FOOD by Rhonda Marie Khan, Accidental Burlesque by Gina Femia (developed through the Audrey Residency at New Georges). She is the 2021 LPTW Lucille Lortel Award recipient, a New Georges Affiliated Artist, 2017-2018 Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow, and Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab alum. BFA, Carnegie Mellon University. Member of SDC.

Premiere Stages offers affordable prices, air-conditioned facilities and free parking close to the theatre. Premiere Stages also provides free or discounted tickets to patrons with disabilities. All Premiere Stages facilities are fully accessible spaces, and companion seating is available for patrons with disabilities. Assistive listening devices and large print playbills are available at every performance; publications in alternate formats are available with advance notice. Sign-interpreted and audio described performances are available upon request; please call 908-737-4077 or email premiere@kean.edu at least two weeks prior to your desired performance. 

Premiere Stages is committed to producing topical plays and interactive programs that reflect people of all ethnic and racial backgrounds, national origins, nationalities, ancestry, religious groups, gender expression or identities, sexual orientation, political beliefs, ages, abilities and disabilities.

Created in 2004, Premiere Stages is the professional Equity theatre in residence at Kean University. Through its unique partnership with Kean, Premiere’s play development programs, educational initiatives, and professional development opportunities actively embrace the university’s academic curriculum while expanding the scope, accessibility, and prestige of the professional programming on campus.

Premiere Stages is made possible in part through funding from W. John Bauer and Nancy Boucher, The New Jersey State Council on the Arts, The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, The Shubert Foundation, Carole Shaffer-Koros and Robert Koros and ExxonMobil Foundation, The Dubose and Dorothy Heyward Foundation, The Northfield Bank Foundation, The Hyde and Watson Foundation, The Union Foundation, E.J. Grassmann Trust, The New Jersey Theatre Alliance, The Union County HEART Grant and through the generous support of individual patrons and local organizations. Discover Jersey Arts is our marketing partner. Visit JerseyArts.com for more information about other arts programming happening around the Garden State.

Founded in 1855, Kean University is one of the largest metropolitan institutions of higher education in the region, with a richly diverse student, faculty and staff population. Kean continues to play a key role in the training of teachers and is a hub of educational, technological and cultural enrichment serving more than 16,000 students. The University’s six colleges offer more than 50 undergraduate degrees, seven doctoral degree programs, and more than 70 options for graduate study leading to master’s degrees, professional diplomas or certifications over a full range of academic subjects. With campuses in Union, Toms River, Jefferson and Manahawkin, New Jersey, and Wenzhou, China, Kean University furthers its mission by providing an affordable and accessible world-class education.